


Ghost of You

by Odds_Evens



Series: RvB Angst War [1]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: RvB Angst War, post s13
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-03
Updated: 2016-03-03
Packaged: 2018-05-24 12:01:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6153043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Odds_Evens/pseuds/Odds_Evens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the RvB Angst War on Tumblr. Junior learns what happened to his father after Chorus.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ghost of You

7 days.

7 days ago Junior had seen the transmission that changed everything. For months he'd fought his guardians, his teachers, even his human friends at school when they insisted his father was dead. So what if the ship he'd been on had disappeared without a trace? They didn't know his dad like he did.

Lavernius Tucker senior was the biggest badass in the Universe, and Junior knew full well that it would take more then just a black hole or a crash landing or an attack from space pirates to take him down.

And 7 days ago, Junior's beliefs had finally been vindicated. There'd been something about a conspiracy to kill a planet in the transmission too, but Junior didn't care about that. His father was alive, and when the UNSC got there, he'd be on his way back home. Back to him.

Today he'd finally see him again.

When the small ship landed outside of the embassy, Junior knew something was wrong. Only guests landed outside. His father never followed that protocol. He was above that!

When he saw the figure in grey and yellow step out of the ship with a folded flag, Junior went to his room and locked the door.

The man was wrong. Everyone was wrong!

Lavernius Tucker senior was okay. The man was here for someone else.

Junior ignored the first knock on his door. It was one of his guards.

The second knock was from one of his friends. He ignored him too.

The third knock was softer, more gentle.

"Junior? Please open the door."

He recognized the voice as human.

He responded in Sanghelli. **"I'm not opening this door, so leave."**

There was a pause, before the voice spoke again, this time in broken (and honestly terrible) sanghelli. **"Junior, I know this is hard. But please let me in."**

Junior hadn't been expecting that. Curiosity finally won over the dread, and he opened his door, standing at full height in an effort to intimidate the man in grey. It didn't work. "Good, may I come inside?"

He walked under Junior's arm before he could respond and entered the room. Instantly Junior knew this man wasn't some random man from the UNSC sent to deliver bad news. No regular human had the balls to barge past him like that. The idea gave him hope.

**"How do you know Sanghelli?"**

It seemed like an appropriate question.

"Your dad taught me some." The man answered in english, looking around the room curiously. His eyes stopped on a framed photo of Junior and his dad. He froze like a dear in headlights.

Junior brought him back to the present. **"How do you know my father? I know all his friends."**

The man doesn't say anything at first. Instead he takes off his helmet. His face looks tired, with eyes stained red. "I met your dad after you moved to the Embassy. We weren't close enough for me to visit with him when he went to see you. We didn't really..." He trails off, eyes closed as he composes himself. "Did you see the transmission Epsilon sent out last week? He calls me Agent Washington in it?"

Junior nods, finally recognizing the man as one of the figures in the video.

Washington fishes out a necklace from inside his armour. It holds a pair of small gold rings on its end. "Your father and I weren't that close before the crash, but on Chorus we were planning on getting married. We were waiting for your blessing before tying the knot."

Junior doesn't know what to say to that. **"Then why isn't he here with you?"**

In response, Washington takes out a small data pad and turns it on. Tucker's face shows up in the video. Junior grows excited before recognizing it as a video. His dad used to send them to him whenever he was too far away to visit.

Washington passes the data pad to Junior, and he presses play.

Tucker's face comes to life as the video starts. He's in his armour but helmet-less, dreads flying lose as he smiles at the camera. _"Hey Junior! This is diary-log number I don't give a fuck. Seriously, I don't even know what day it is anymore! All I know is after tomorrow, I will finally be able to send this to you!"_

Junior's clawed hand reaches out to touch the screen, studying his father's face. He looks happy.

_"I hope you had one of your guards record your basketball games for me. I can't believe I missed your tournament!"_

_"Tucker, is this really the most pressing thing to talk about right now? We only have a few minutes."_

Junior recognizes Washington's voice in the video. He looks up at the other man, but Washington has his face buried in his hands.

_"Shove it, Wash. This is my video to my son. I'll talk about whatever I want!"_

Washington comes into view in the video, sitting next to Tucker and rolling his eyes as Tucker wraps an arm around him. _"Speaking of which! This is David, or Agent Washington, or whatever. I'll introduce you guys properly when we're back on Earth, but for now just know that in a few weeks this guy is going to finally become David Tucker."_

In the video, Washington makes a face. _"Wait, why would I be taking your name?"_

_"Because my name is awesome."_

_"Why can't I just keep my name as it is?"_

_"I literally just told you. Because my name is awesome."_

_"That makes zero sense. Literally. Like, no sense."_

Tucker ignores him and returns his attention back to the screen. _"Don't worry, Junior. You'll get used to him. And he's really excited to meet you!"_

_"I think terrified would be a better word to use."_

_"Come on, Wash, he'll love you."_

_"And if he doesn't, he could just rip me apart and be done with it..."_

Tucker laughs at him. The sound is like music to Junior's ears.

The video cuts to black, but quickly returns. Now Tucker's in his helmet, he's squished between Griff and Simmons on what looks like a far too small plane.

_"Epsilon, we recording?"_

A blue figure appears at Tucker's shoulder. _"Yes. Just make it quick, okay? It's kind of hard to juggle not crashing this damn thing while running your fucking recording software."_

_"Hey! I have to do this, okay?"_

_"Fucking sap."_

Epsilon disappears and Tucker quickly goes back to talking. _"Hey kid. So, I know in my last video I said I'd be seeing you soon, but I don't know if that's going to be happening now. Stuff sort of went to hell and we're on our way to go crash another ship into a planet. Yes, another ship. Trust me, it's an awesome story and I really hope I'll be there to tell you about it."_

Simmons grabs onto Tucker as the plane they're in dips dangerously, before righting itself back up. Sarge's voice: _"We're coming in on the ship! Look alive, boys!"_

Tucker pushes Simmons off him before returning to his recording. _"On the tiny, seriously unlikely chance that I don't make it out of this alive, I want you to know that you're the best thing that ever happened to me. And I'm going to make sure you're taken care of. I know you're basically Alien Jesus, but if you ever want to give that up and live a normal life, I'm leaving everything I own to you. There isn't a lot, but the UNSC settlement money from the Freelancer fiasco should at least keep your comfortable. My sword is yours, of course, but you already knew that."_

The ship dips again and Epsilon returns to Tucker's shoulder. _"Wrap this up, please!"_

_"I know your guards want me to default custody of you to them but tell them to go fuck themselves! You are Lavernius Tucker Junior FIRST, and Alien Jesus second. I want custody of you to go to Wash, and I want you to live as normal a life as you can. I want you to stay in your human school, I want you to keep playing basketball, and I want you to graduate. You're my boy, Junior, and you're going to do great things."_

The video ends suddenly again, but this time it doesn't come back. Junior looks up at Washington in confusion. **"What happened to my dad?"**

Instead of answering, Washington opens a small pocket in his armour and hands a familiar, inactivated energy sword to him. "I'm sorry, Junior. None of them made it out."

Junior drops the sword, refusing to activate it. **"You're wrong! You're lying!"**

Washington won't look at him. "I wish I was."

Junior throws the data pad across the room, destroying it. Washington doesn't even flinch. He's drawing his fingers over the pair of rings on his necklace, eyes looking past Junior as if he doesn't even exist. Junior finally recognizes the red stains on the man's eyes as evidence of crying.

**"My dad's a fighter. He's a great warrior."**

"He saved everyone." Wash confirms. "I was on the planet fighting and we were bombarded by Mantis and soldiers. We would have died if they hadn't gone on that ship and disabled everything."

**"I wish you had died instead of him."**

Washington nods. "I wish I had too."

Junior doesn't say anything after that. His words weren't really meant for Washington to respond to.

He looks down at the sword on the floor and hesitantly picks it up.

It activates.


End file.
